Meet Me in St. Louis

(WARNER, $26.99)
Movie: 4 stars  Disc: 4 stars

The Movie: Director Vincente Minnelli’s third feature marks the first time he put to full use his stunning mastery of design; the perfection of his framing is matched by the impeccable beauty of what he places in that frame—and style creates, rather than merely enhances, meaning. But let’s not get too theoretical here. This is Meet Me in St. Louis, still the ultimate family musical, full of laughs and heartbreaks and scares—that Halloween sequence still has a primal fairy-tale quality to it—and songs, most notably those numbers about the trolley and Christmas, both sung with touching conviction by star Judy Garland, who’s utterly lovely here. This was her first substantive collaboration with future husband Minnelli.

The Disc: An absolutely breathtaking transfer of this Technicolor marvel is supplemented by a commentary largely by Garland biographer John Fricke. Mixing in new reminiscences from the likes of Margaret O’Brien (whose portrayal of the irrepressible moppet Tootie helped win her a special Oscar) with archival interviews with various behind-the-scenes figures, it’s one of the best-conceived and executed pieces of its kind. Liza Minnelli contributes an initially awkward but eventually moving intro; there’s something awfully touching about the way she refers to Minnelli as “Daddy” throughout. A second disc recycles much of the material from the pic’s great laserdisc incarnation, including, among other treasures, a 1930 Warners short featuring Garland at age eight, and a pilot for a TV version of St. Louis with Wesley Addy in the patriarch role originated by Leon Ames—that’s sure to scare the hell out of fans of Seconds! This is just one of five Garland titles Warners is putting out now; the rest of this bunch are Ziegfeld Girl, Love Finds Andy Hardy, For Me and My Gal (which also features an excellent Fricke commentary), and In the Good Old Summertime. Good going, Warners—now when do we get The Pirate and Summer Stock?

—Glenn Kenny